Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: The Bombshell, 9/10

AH!

I'm not sure if Clark's iciness is at Lois or Robin. Does he really believe that Robin was going to kill her? Does he believe his parents? Why would they lie to him? Why would Lois have lied to him, but that's a different issue?

Are they going to be okay?

I'm guessing at least sort of because you wouldn't do that to us. Would you?

I'm glad M/J were around to help get Clark out of there.

I do feel sorry for Robin. She's had a rough go of it, but that doesn't excuse her behavior and now she's going to have to live the rest of her [very long most likely] life in captivity. Though I could also see her committing suicide by Kryptonite since she can't have Clark or some nonsense like that.

When's part 10 coming exactly?!

Carol

Oh, this packs such a punch!

And I'm fishing about for something to compare it with, but I'm not doing a very good job of it. But I guess the closest thing I can come up with is MacBeth. MacBeth was a brave and noble warrior, a good man. He was happy with his lot in life, to serve his king, Duncan. But on his way home from a victorious battle, he meets three witches who tell him about things he had never dared to dream of, but which he now can't stop dreaming of - to become King. The only obstacle that stands in his way is the man he has pledged his most solemn allegiance to, King Duncan.

Clark was happy with his life and pledge to his wife Lois, when, out of the blue, he met his witches - or his witch, Robin. And he wanted so badly, so overwhelmingly, to have what she promised him - herself.

Of course Robin isn't a witch. I agree with Carol that she is somebody we have to feel very sorry for. But for all of that, Robin is supremely dangerous and has to be contained.

But Clark doesn't see it. Or if he sees it, he steadfastly denies what he can see. Robin is what Clark must have, just like the royal crown was what MacBeth had to have. Once Clark and Macbeth have been shown what they can have, and they so desperately want, they can't back down. Clark is chillingly unyielding here, like a block of ice or a boulder of rock:

Like a glacier. That is what he is. Unyielding. But sliding, slipping downhill, like glaciers do. Unstoppable. Indeed, unstoppable even to himself. Glaciers don't come with emergency brakes. And the abyss awaits the tragic hero following the trajectory of his destiny.





Now Clark wants to speak to Robin in private. My guess is that he is either going to try to break her out of her prison, or else join her in there. In either case, I think Clark has been pushed to the point where he has to choose between Lois and Robin, and my feeling is that he has chosen Robin. I think he has crossed a point of no return.

Will Lois survive? If Clark breaks Robin out, Robin may still kill Lois. Will Clark and Lois's marriage survive? I doubt it. I'm not sure it would be a really good idea for Lois to try to stay with Clark now. Maybe, after a couple of years, Clark's desperate hunger for Robin's company may have subsided, and then maybe Lois and Clark can be together again. For now, I actually think it might be a good idea for Lois to leave Clark while the going is good.

Of course, in a real tragedy, Lois would already be doomed. Clark the glacier would sweep her before him and crush her beneath him. Or he would release Robin, and she would do the killing. Lois might be like Rigoletto's daughter, who takes her dying breath in her father's arms, and who lost her life because of her father's sins.



This is such a breathless story, Terry. We need to set it to music, I think. So I suggest this aria from Verdi's Rigoletto.

Ann

First well done!!
=======================

It might take her a while, months or years, but at some point she will learn to spin while floating in mid air. She will spin faster and faster and faster till she is spinning so fast that when she crashes through the walls there will be no time for the liquid to touch her body before she is gone. At that point....


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This from the man who wrote
Does not matter that she is damaged? Oh no, Lois is justified because she is Lois?

Their little half way game is much worse than killing her. Lois might be justified in killing Kara/Robin in self defense but life time imprisonment? No. It is far more immoral.

Superman can't allow this because the word will get out. Someone will want Robin as their tool. Sooner or later the world will know and no one will ever trust Superman again.

By the way since she will outlive Bernie and Lois both she will someday be free or be killed.

That's an interesting point, Framework.

My first thought is that, yes, had this been just about anyone else, Lois could have killed her in self-defense and, unless what's his name from S4 was the DA, no one would blink over it.

But Robin is Kryptonian. In order for Lois to kill her, she has to have Kryptonite. Kryptonite can incapacitate Robin immediately, but for Lois to *kill* her, it would have to be premeditated I think. Because she'd have to open the Kryptonite, and then - when she's no longer in danger - kill her. Even if she could 'stage' it so that Henderson or whoever didn't realize that Kryptonite had been used and could convince them that it was self-defense, she'd never be able to convince Clark of that [though I think M/J would understand and even back her up] and there goes her relationship with Clark. If Clark were to catch her choking Lois, I would imagine that he could manage to kill her somehow [because that's about the only way to stop her]. But he'd never forgive himself, not only because he's taken a life - regardless that it was the only way to protect Lois - but because then he's the aberration of Kryptonian society and he'll go live in the Himalayas somewhere, never to be seen from again.

I'm not saying that Terry's got the right solution here, and I have no clue what's going to happen in part 10, but what's the other options?

Bring her to trial? Or at least have her declared mentally unstable? Then the Luthors of the world who would want to control their own anti-Superman would know of her existence, etc.

So what's the alternative that doesn't end up with a dead Lois?

A Kryptonite necklace or something so Robin can't get close to her, but then neither can Clark...

I'm being completely serious. As I pose these questions, possible solutions come to me, but none are very good IMO... It's quite possible that I'm missing something, but I don't know what it is.

Contact Zara and send her to New Krypton ?

Carol

I think Terry will kill off Robin/Kara. Unless he sends her to New Krypton. And she can be "Lady El".

I still think she is Clark's cousin.

I don't think Terry wrote this in by mistake, nor do I think he just happen to have her grow up in an area where marrying your first cousin is now frowned upon.

He used "Kara", and anyone close to the Superman mythos or who has seen and ad for Smallville last year is going to think Kara, Superman's cousin.

Where he is going, I have no idea.

Ah - see I have no clue about any Kara in any Superman mythos .

Dead or NK ... When are you posting again Terry?!

Carol

Wow!!

Things really came to a head in this part.
It was nice to see Robin crack. It really showed her volatility.

However Clark is driving me nuts. All the evidence is clearly there... and yet he still questions Lois's word... and even worse... he questions his parents word. Wouldn't Clark be suspicious as to why he was knocked out by Robin? After all... there was no logical reason for her to deck him in the house... and he has the bruise to prove it wasn't Lois's kryptonite that caused him to drop.

I think it would have been wrong for Lois to kill Robin, however, I do believe having the kryptonite on her to protect her was certainly sensible. I can somewhat understand Clark being angry with this... but after hearing what she was threatened with... I would expect him to soften, and yet... he seems so infatuated with Robin he isn't hearing or caring what Lois has to say or feels.

Even worse, he seems so blinded, that he is seeing Robin's side, and only her side.

I hope Clark doesn't break Robin out.
I find it illogical that Clark would want to be imprisoned in the apartment with her too... but this Clark seems to be quite irrational for some (as yet?) unexplained reason.

I am concerned that Superman is glacial to Lois. A husband doesn't treat their wife to such a cold stare, regardless of their current persona...

What spell has Robin got cast over Clark?
And what, if anything, can Lois possibly do to get Clark to think rationally again?

I think for this to progress, Bernie will have to be brought in on the 'secret'... surely he must be suspecting (and besides... Robin could always just blab it out.. it isn't as if she has any morals or respect for anyone). Bernie is one of the best allies Lois could have right about now, but given his knowledge of the synthetic K... I have to worry that he could be in the firing line from both Robin and Superman...

Despite Robin being "behind bars" I still worry for Lois. There won't be another stalling opportunity the 'next' time. And Robin would hate her now more than anything...

I can't wait to see what Superman says to Robin, what Robin says to him, and whether Clark and Lois will talk any of this through.

Please post the next part soon.... or even earlier if you can!!
Loved this part and need mooooore!!

I agree with Patrick that Robin may very well be Clark's cousin. Her Kryptonian name, Kara, is just too suggestive. I wonder if Robin herself believes (or knows) that she is Clark's cousin.

Personally, I can't get over her other name, Robin, either. The first Robin I ever heard of, when I was a kid, was Robin Hood. The second Robin I heard of was Batman's sidekick. So when I first learned, not until I was in my twenties, that Robin was primarily a girl's name in the United States, I almost couldn't believe it!

Anyway, Robin has got the same name as Batman's sidekick. Does that suggest that maybe this Robin could be Superman's sidekick? Or that Clark would like to see her in that role?

Ann

oooohhhhhh
I'm loving this fic, Terry...

it's just soooooo gooood

I also thought of the link between the name ROBIN and the side-kick role, and was humming and uh-ing about it all...

but
if Robin were human, given her turbulent past with her history of sexual abuse etc, I believe that any court would find no trouble in declaring her a danger to others due to mental instability...

I'm too tired now to think of the precise terminology, but she would be locked up in an institution only to be released upon the state's discretion (in Australia there are particular courts set up within the Mental Health tribunal to deal with this, but I've no idea about the States...)

to me this does not seem to be very different from Robin's current situation, in comparison to a prison sentence...

the only difference would be that this scenario is the only plausible method of keeping her incarcerated against her will, without harming her physically in any way for the duration of her sentence

I'm viewing Clark's reactions slightly differently I guess... I see him as more of an Oedipus figure about to gouge his eyes out than as a Bellerophon about to to take the fall for pride. Yes he is unemotional in this chapter, but that could be the shock of learning the truth about Robin just as much as denial and anger towards Lois in my mind. But we shall see =) Can't wait to see the dialogue between him an Robin.

Ooh, more feedback! Very literary feedback, too. I've already mentioned that I didn't deliberately call up all these mythic archetypes, but it looks like they snuck up me when I weren't lookin'.

Carol, maybe Superman is icy because he's just discovered a room designed to keep him prisoner. Just because Robin's in there doesn't mean he isn't feeling as if he's the one in jail.

Wow, Ann. There's a lot in that glacier comment that I didn't know I was putting in. Maybe the ending to this mythical tale won't be quite so disastrous. And I'm extremely flattered that you want to set this story to music, although I might have chosen something by Lionel Ritchie.

Patrick, I think there's a difference here. In the story from which you're plucking that feedback, Superman acts preemptively to isolate Lex Luthor from any opportunity to wreak more havoc on his victims. Here, Lois is defending herself against a super-powered woman who has just tried to kill her. The circumstances aren't quite the same, although the common theme of incarceration without due process of law does exist.

Lisamaree, I'm sorry Clark is acting like such a dunderhead. If you factor in his ongoing conflict with his wife and his inability to resolve it, his sentence of never fathering a child, and his "home town" relationship with Robin, it's no wonder he's having trouble keeping it all straight in his head. But I think you'll see that things will be made clear in the next chapter. At least, I hope so.

Many decades ago, Ann, there was a "World's Finest" comic - which at the time featured mostly Superman/Batman teamup adventures - where Batman somehow flew the Batplane to a parallel world where he had no counterpart. Robin (Dick Grayson) had somehow gotten teamed up with Superman as crimefighters. I always wondered why Superman would need a human sidekick, but I guess it was a believable as anything else in those comics. Batman eventually got home with a renewed appreciation for Robin's contribution to the Bat-effort.

Barbara, thanks for reading. In the US, Robin couldn't be locked up anywhere unless she was convicted of a criminal act or was deemed a danger to herself or to others by a court. In either case, she'd probably end up right where she is now.

Lieta, thanks for reading and commenting! I think you're right about Superman's seeming unemotional state. I prefer to describe it as tight control due to the volatile mix of feelings he's experiencing. He's just looks unemotional because he's trying not to lose it.

Look for the last chapter on Thursday!

How on earth are you going to wrap all this up in one more chapter without us hankering for a sequel???

*mind boggles*

Can't wait till Thursday... er Friday my time.

Hi guys I'm back! Look I just caught up on this story....is Lois and Clark going to work on their other problem? Now what to do with Robin....... . . . . I know call up Ching and Zara and tell them they left something lol. I love the story can't wait until next part.

Very intense story, Terry. I just got caught up with it. This has been a very real-life filled week for me, but I finally got a chance to read it. Now I want to see how you resolve it.

Nan

More feedback! More juice for the junkie!

lovesuper97, that's not a bad idea for Robin. I wonder if she'd go with them willingly? And would they even take an antisocial misfit like her? I don't know.

Nan, sorry that real life has been kicking up its heels at you. Glad you could drop in and read.

Next chapter coming up!